Porto Beach Resort Exclusive Alacati - Half Board

Really, really good. This was my third stay at this hotel!

Great.

The rooms have terrible sound insulation. We could hear everything from next door, and the baby's crying kept us from sleeping for three nights. I don't blame the family at all, of course. The baby had every right to cry; this is a problem with the hotel's construction, and there's no real fix for it. We could choose a land-view room because the hotel was full, but it looked out over a dump. A room like that shouldn't be sold. After housekeeping, there were no shower towels, and we waited around 45 minutes. It was sorted out when we went to reception. Most of the staff seemed poorly trained, with a few exceptions. Two of them said they were 17 or 18 and had only started ten days earlier. The food was truly mediocre, and children might find the place boring. It didn't seem clean or well maintained to me. The beach was neglected and dirty, and the loungers were left uncleaned, just as previous guests had left them. The sea depends on the wind: with a southerly wind it's choppy and cloudy, but with no wind or a northerly wind it's crystal clear. We paid far too much for this resort. It should cost half as much, and after seeing the lower price, I shouldn't have come. Don't set your expectations high.

The grounds are lovely, but I can't recommend the hotel itself. I gave the trip to my husband as a gift and felt uncomfortable as soon as we arrived. It was very dirty, the waiters seemed uninterested, and our room had no balcony. There wasn't even music in the evenings. The last three days had bad weather, so we couldn't lounge by the pool or do anything else, and it was incredibly boring. There's almost nothing around for miles, just two hotels. It doesn't deserve five stars. What a shame.